In the development of beverage packaging, numerous attempts have been made to provide paperboard packaging for fluids, utilizing a plastic bag within the paperboard structure to hold the fluid. As these packages evolved to have dispensing spouts secured and extending from the paperboard packaging, many product features have been refined, including the secure mounting of spouts and the design of spouts that were easy to use. It has also been desirable to make the inner pouches of these containers removable so that plastic and cardboard or paperboard material can be recycled separately after use. As the bag in box packaging has evolved, some packaging has been designed for the particular use of conveying hot or cold liquids and maintaining an appropriate serving temperature. For instance, a coffee shop or restaurant might utilize a paperboard and plastic bag in box style carton in lieu of a returnable thermos to allow customers to carry multiple servings of branded coffee for use at meetings at location remote from the retail shop dispensing the beverage. Similarly, a restaurant may provide soup in a paperboard and plastic bag in box container.
Most of these containers have provided a paperboard outer shell with an opening for a spout on a front vertical panel or forward directed angled panel. When the opening is on the front vertical panel, in order to fill the bag, the container is rested on its back. In these designs, a handle, if any, protrudes from the top of the paperboard box. The existing bag in box packaging designs provide many options for consumer use and carrying of beverages in amounts ranging from about 96 ounces to 160 ounces.
However, on occasion, it is desirable to carry larger quantities of beverages. One industry that frequently uses containers to transport food and beverages is the catering industry. Often food and beverages are transported from a preparation site or a storage area to a catered event. The food containers are often disposable and therefore may be thrown away after the event and do not have to be returned to the caterer or picked up by the caterer after the event. Caterers also would prefer to have disposable beverage containers available so that beverage containers would not need to be returned to or retrieved by the caterer. For effective use in catering application, containers need to be larger than the 96-160 ounce range, as containers of that size necessitate an unreasonable multiplicity of smaller containers that create logistics issues in moving from place to place. In addition, due to their size many small containers present greater surface area to the ambient atmosphere and will inherently fail to maintain beverages at a desired hot or cold temperature for the same length of time that a larger container might. There is also a greater amount of material and waste used in creating many smaller containers than several large containers,
However, as containers become larger, it is necessary that containers be constructed in a fashion that provides adequate strength for their use over several hours' time. A beverage container would not be acceptable if it tended to buckle over time or if it could be easily tipped over, or if it was not constructed to be easily handled in transportation and in filling and dispensing beverages.
One attempt at providing such an oversize beverage container is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,736,289. However, this container has a complicated base structure that may not be readily assembled by catering employees, and lacks a reinforced handle structure that is needed when carrying beverage weights that can be in excess of 20 pounds.
In addition to the weight issue making strong handle structure desirable, an oversize beverage carrier box is not easily tipped to dispense beverages by pouring. As a result, such a container requires an elevated tap to dispense beverages. When the tap is elevated, it means that if the container inside of the box extends below the tap location, a low resting pool of beverage will result that is not dispensable by gravity flow. It is also desirable that the beverage carrier be compact and it is preferable that the container can be shipped flat and expanded into an assembled box when needed by the user.
All of these requirements must be addressed in a stable and robust structure. Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a new oversize beverage carrier box structure to address one or more of these shortcomings and to provide additional benefits to businesses transporting substantial quantities of beverages to consumers.